mahohmei

Maybe we're looking towards a future of 100% gate searches nationwide. Every single gate would have TS"O"s assigned to it, and you don't board without photo ID, a BP with matching name, a Freedom Grope and a manual search of your carry-ons. You can never be too sure...

lovely15

Well of course it is.

These are low-paid clerks with no security clearance and pretty much no respect or concern for their country. A terrorist's best friend.

Caradoc

Among other concepts - like reason, common sense, ethics, and basic hygiene.

Or their countrymen.

mahohmei

Hypothetical situation: a passenger stands up an an airplane, pulls out a gun, and attempts to either (1) make the pilot fly somewhere, or (2) rob passengers of their valuables. Soon enough, the passenger is hog-tied with giant zip ties, the gun is waiting to be handed over to LE as evidence, and LEOs are waiting at the destination and telling the TSA to keep their pretend badges away from their real LE work.

While being interviewed, the robber claims that he bribed a TS"O" to let him through security with a gun. How on earth do you verify this statement as true or false? LE (and the TSA) know that the landside-airside barrier is so porous, there are countless ways he could have gotten the gun onto the airplane: friend working at the airport, friend who's an LEO, or the NoS simply didn't detect the gun.

On a side note, my blood pressure doubles when there's some article about a box knife being found in a seat back pocket, and invariably, someone is quoted saying "I don't see how the box knife could have possibly made it on the airplane with the TSA on guard!"

Caradoc

That'd be difficult to prove when the video of the clerk handling the miscreant's bag at the checkpoint disappeared.

lovely15

Sure, there are tons of options. I was only pointing out that low paid clerks are targets for bribery.

And if that was the case, said clerk would probably not be smart enough to hide the payments. It would be easily figured out.

mikeef

"Sir, I'm carrying Dihydrogen Monoxide. Just to let you know, it can cause severe burns, electrical failures, corrosion and even death if consumed in large quantities. It's used as an industrial solvent, fire retardant and in pesticides. What harm could it possibly cause?"

Mike

cottonmather0

Thanks for sharing that thread.

It brings up a question I've had all along with gate searches, and now also this nonsense: How in the world is any kind of arbitrary search away from the checkpoint considered to be constitutional? Especially if the idea is that if they find drugs or anything illegal - not just a weapon - they'll call a cop and turn you in? TSA is an agent of the government and that kind of behavior is prohibited by the 4th Amendment. Period.

chollie

Hand your beverage to the TSO and while he/she makes magic, reach in your bag and pull out another large sealed beverage.

Or reach in your bag and pull out a large container of lotion or alcohol - something obviously too large for the checkpoint, non-medical, a sterile area purchase.

Wonder if they'll test all sterile area liquids, or just beverages.

loops

Be careful with that stuff! A lungful of that substance can kill you. Avoid full immersion without special equipment.

T.J. Bender

The best part of that scenario is when Bob the Blogger defends the "oopsie" by saying that knives are not considered a threat, then turns around a week later and boasts about the "great catch" when a screener gets a keyring-sized Swiss Army Knife off a Boy Scout.

Mike, there's a fish pun waiting to be made.

The best answer I've ever gotten from a TSO during a gate check is, "The signs at the checkpoint say we can."

RadioGirl

Dihydrogen monoxide is also responsible for aggressive behaviour. Researchers found that when they removed all the water from aquariums containing Siamese fighting fish, all signs of aggression disappeared almost immediately. Further research confirmed that complete water deprivation decreased aggressive behaviour in mammals; but sometimes it took a few weeks.

IrishDoesntFlyNow

It is absolutely true that 100% of convicted violent felons consume dihydrogen monoxide regularly, sometimes in great quantity.

~~ Irish

WilcoRoger

As also seen in post #37 here

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18878915-post37.html

dan1431

As I see it, while some of the policies and procedures are okay or even good many are just CYA to protect the bureaucrats higher up the chain when failures occur and the front line (clerks if you will) are left to assume (on their own) the reasoning (as it seems they are given the same info we the general public are told) for what they are doing and with a little imagination on their part and the fact they are "officers" they are left to assume that their hard work is now protecting the general public from the would be bad actors out there.

That is how you (IMHO) get airside screening of liquids as some yahoo (probably some low level bureaucrat in Washington or maybe even at the airport admin level) figures that liquids are bad, there are liquids air side, so let protect the public by checking them with our "magic dangerous liquid identification strips" (Patent Pending ).

This lack of education and the fact that front line TSA Employees are essentially clerks explains how Post #: 96 occurs, where the TSA employee is going to confiscate a liquid because it was not found in a baggie upon the gate search, but when told it was in a baggie at the checkpoint he did not confiscate it. The TSA employee is nothing more than a clerk and he is told in a baggie safe, out of a baggie unsafe and not given any reasoning for the baggie and thus has to confiscate a liquid not found in the baggie even though for all intense and purposes it may meet all other qualifications for being "safe" air side.

Dan